One of the main items we preach here is getting rich and pretending to have nothing. We write the way we do because if we state something as “fact” it makes it a lot more likely that people will try it. In school most people are taught to be “open minded” as their liberal teachers force feed them horrible advice on how to succeed. So if we talk in reverse fashion, it only attracts people who were smart enough to realize they were being fed lies in school (“team spirit”, “team work”, “go the extra mile for someone else” and other such nonsense). The idea of getting rich and laying low is pretty important so we’ll give you a step by step on how to do it.
Two Rules Before You Get Rich…
#1 Remember to Avoid Fame: As we’ve said in the past, fame is just harassment from regular people. If you’re famous, people already know you have money. And. On top of that, the people you attract will be “angling” for something. If you’re simply a happy go lucky guy or a calm person, you’ll attract much less attention. This is a good thing since you will only display wealth on an “as needed” basis. This is extremely important. An as needed basis means that you choose to let people in on the secret (that you’re well off). In short, get rich first, then decide if you want to be famous.
… And #2 Avoid Personal Life Details: When people poke around for personal life details, stick with broad topics and tell people you are “80% as good as they are”. If they make $200K a year, you’ll make $160K. If they live in a 3 bedroom house, you live in a 2 bedroom condominium. So on and so forth. (As a side note, most people lie *up* so remember to adjust for the lie when giving your 80% number). If you follow these two simple rules you will be miles and miles ahead of your peers. You won’t have to answer hundreds of text messages asking for a “job” or “hey man we should work together”. No one will waste your valuable time as you scale since they won’t know you’re rich in the first place.
Get Richer While Remaining Under the Radar
For what it is worth, somewhere around $25 million and it becomes almost impossible to be under the radar (from what we’ve seen). The reason why? Well if you get to this level… around $2.5M (at least) will likely be attributed to your home. If your primary residence is worth nearly $3 million you’re likely well off so your cover is blown. Sure you could try and hide but as more and more people visit you, word will get out and you’re essentially a target (at least to people who are two handshakes away). The good news? If you stuck with the two rules above, the people who know you’re well off will be contained. Since $25 million is rich by practically any standard out there, you now know it is possible to scale without drawing a ton of attention.
Distributed Cash Flows: The easiest way to blow your cover is to concentrate all of your wealth into a single cash flow item. If you own all of the real estate in your neighborhood or you show up in company filings as owning 10% of a public company’s stock… you’re going to be well known in a hurry. The best way to avoid this is by having multiple streams of semi-passive and passive cash flows. If you build out multiple internet businesses that generate $120K a year, then build out a bunch of real estate assets that generate $120K a year… No one is going to think you’re rich. Why? Well you tell the real estate people that is your primary business and you tell the internet side that is your primary business. Now both sides of the fence think you’re only making $10K a month.
Now we realize on first glance that these numbers may seem low or high (depending on the age of the reader) but it is certainly possible to get two streams of cash flow to $10K a month and have no one think you’re rich. As a clear example, if you read Efficiency, once you sell your first business you could make ~$1M. With $1M and some leverage you can essentially own cash flowing properties and work online to get to $10K a month very rapidly ($10K for each line item).
Avoid a Car: Cars are clear giveaways for wealth. The more important item? When you’re driving, you can’t actually use your time for anything. You’re busy driving. If you work online, this is not a good set up since you could spend your time responding to emails, making small updates or researching in general. Making money while you’re in transit is a lot better than spending your time avoiding incompetent drivers on the road. We have no doubt there are special situations where people will need a car… that said… if you live in an urban city the chances you really need one are slim.
Never Give Financial Advice: Yep, that’s right… If you give financial advice to people who are new, there is a high chance that they put the pieces together. Don’t do it. If someone is in a network closer to you, then the rule loosens a bit to “don’t tell them how much you make or how you make it”. If you go through concepts such as leverage, cash on cash return, derivatives and outsourcing a workforce… they will figure it out quickly. Instead if you’re forced into some sort of financial conversation, stick with the boring advice of “save 20% a year and invest in stocks”. This alone will make you appear as cookie cutter as they come.
Don’t Talk About Scaling a Business: That’s right, when you start to scale your business or your investments… don’t talk about it to anyone. Most people are busy trying to cut costs to increase their savings rate. Practically none of them reach the realization that scale leads to a 1,000x higher return. While you’re busy scaling and earning more, they are busy trying to squeeze the margin line. When you’re in a normal social setting always have a few “cost saving tips” in the back of your head, this will make it seem like you’re in the same conversation as they are. This can be random facts such as “you can refinance your home for X% lower now!” to “XYZ came out with a cool promotion to lower your cell phone bill”, naturally the example you choose depends on who you’re talking to.
Complain About a “Boss”: This is the best way to blend in. Even if you don’t have a boss, just pretend you do and complain about it. This is probably the most common complaint after age 22 “yada yada boss sucks or someone else is a jerk”. The worst thing you can possibly do is complain about *customers* because then your cover is blown (and you’ve given away a key detail that you don’t have a real boss). Just replace all your actual problems with the word “boss”. You don’t have production issues, you have “a boss who can’t prioritize”. You don’t have a customer service issue, you have “a boss who can’t give directions”. So on and so forth.
Putting it All Together and a Why
For the first time we’ll actually explain why you want to do this. If you’ve read the paragraphs above, you’ll see the key items are: 1) lying down, 2) pretending to not be in charge of your own life, 3) avoiding dead giveaway expensive items such as a car, 4) avoiding leaks and 5) avoiding unsolicited advice.
Why? Well if you’re serious about getting rich what you’ll find is that people will try to prod into your life. Even if you get a measly promotion at some soul crushing job, people will poke around to see how much money you make. Think about this further… if you succeed with an actual business then people will beg for jobs. This is a guarantee. Now you have people emailing you with terrible ideas that don’t work and asking horrible questions that don’t make any sense. This eats into your time. If you’re not where you want to be financially (yet) don’t create more work for yourself. This is equivalent to running up a sand hill, when there is a hard dirt path five feet to the right. You’re already in a tough game, don’t make it tougher.
The other reason for this is filtering your own social circle. If you complain about a “boss” for example then you know the other person is not on the right path. Why? You’ll see it in their body language. The same applies to driving cars. If you see a guy with an expensive car he’s typically newly rich so you simply stroke his ego and eventually you’ll figure out if he’s worth adding to your network. The key is information and giving out the least while obtaining the most.
The last item for “why” is avoiding leaks. If you don’t have a distributed cash flow system and all of it is concentrated under one person, the chances he or she blabs to other people is quite high. If you’ve got $20 million in real estate alone, the chances that you’re under the radar is around zero percent. While this is a fantastic problem to have (later), it’s best to delay the problem so you can continue choosing who you meet with. In short, the reason for all of this is to choose your own network! Most people are busy trying to “angle and sneak into” someone else’s network. Instead you’re cherry picking people you keep in touch with by giving out the least amount of information.
For the newer readers… if you’re interested in learning more about making money, staying in shape and doing so without choking off your personality… You’ll probably like Efficiency, Get Rich Without Giving Up Your Life. The benefits include: 1) How to get into the top 10% physically with one hour a day of exercise; 2) How to eat correctly to be in the top 10%; 3) How to figure out what type of intelligence you have; 4) How to use this type of intelligence to choose a career and the *right* company: Wall Street, Technology or Sales; 5) How to start an online business and sell (the basics and all you need to start); 6) Clear outline of how to create and start an online product business with correct copywriting; 7) How to go into affiliate marketing if someone wants to take a stab at the competitive space; 8) Overview of how affiliate marketing operates and how to do it, 9) How to do all of this and maintain a normal social life (avoid choking off your personality
Have friends that are in artistic (acting, etc) industries who I initially thought were just cool and “whatever” about money.
But… Money talk and business talk comes up and insecurity in that area is shown. Clear “silent treatment” after some responses.
From now on, I will lie down!
Glad you learned from that mistake.
Same boat – money talk always boils down to “im just following my dreams, you only live once” or something of the matter, feel good circle jerk.
Using power of 1%, the only *area* i’ve been complimented in is an artistic area. currently working tech sales doing that *area* as hobby, trying to find my other talents.
Stroking their ego is good (if you want to keep them as friends) – something like “wow, what you do is so cool, I’m so bored at my corporate job I envy you”
Agreed, or ask them about how things work in their industry, make them feel like THE expert in the group at it.
Additional points if you’re out with the friend and talking to chicks and say “he’s an artist”, I just work a boring XYZ job (i just do internet marketing :p).
Long term investment.
I’m interviewing right now for tech sales careers and I noticed you said you were bores with tech sales.
I’m guessing the pay for you is less than 6 figures and you’re doing cold calls all do instead of demos and closing big deals.
I brought Efficiency. Only half way finishing the book and taking down notes. My best $10 investment!
Owning assets through LLCs can help lower visibility, esp in real estate.
Yes just don’t concentrate it into one spot, higher likelihood of leaks.
Sounds like you already know how it works, fantastic!
Regarding real estate LLC’s, the registered agent should by your attorney (public record searches) and the llc name should be the physical address of the property. Oh and make sure the realtor is onboard because most are flashy and ego driven. Lastly, use a third party to mange or pretend the landlord is a douche bag if you manage it yourself.
Great advice in such a short comment. Efficient!
Came here to say this. Own through separate LLC’s and own your residence through an LLC as well. (Can get dicey/expensive to finance though)
Also, I believe New Mexico allows anonymous LLC’s where ownership can be obscured further.
Be sure your residence’s utilities are all in the LLC name as well. Have any USPS mail go to a UPS store (or similar) mailbox. The key is to never associate your name with where you live, ever.
I speak from experience, I do this now so relatives can’t stalk me.
Avoid social media/uploading pictures. If your mom wants to see what you’ve been up to, mail her an album.
CLASSIC POST. THANK YOU.
Your last two posts are gold. How to lay low is the defensive skill, while Feeding the ego is the offensive.
It worked wonderfully for me last week, as I had an important meet up. Instead of angling like regular people, I followed up the next day with “hey, we didn’t have time to talk about that, but I noticed you are in great shape, what is your training regimen like”. And the guy handed me over everything I needed for my business.
As for laying low, it takes a lot of practice, especially as I didn’t make it yet. As you said, the point is to selectively show wealth to avoid wasting time with regulars.
Thank you for everything.
Yep. Flash is typically new rich. Unless you are already a public figure… then of course go flashy becuase it’ll draw more attention
Step 1… never become a public figure unless you’re 1,000% certain becuase you can’t reverse course on that one
Except if this is taken to the extreme, I feel like it can seriously bar you from dating 9s and 10s in today’s society. I look around and it seems like the guys who get hot girls are the ones who to some degree have a cool social media presence with a good number of followers and the image of a high status life.
So how do you present yourself as high status and desirable to the 9s and 10s of the world if you are practically doing all you can to lower your status for the fear of envy?
That was not an actual question, ignore the question part, this was supposed to be more of a comment.
get spiritual
I’ve been reading your content for a while now and I really like what you do. So thanks for a great blog.
Now, I have a serious question though, because although I agree with the advice given in this post, I cannot help noticing that this is pretty much contrary to the advice that you give in your post about dating here: http://wallstreetplayboys.com/personal-finance-and-dating/
In that post, you explicitly state that “If a girl cannot experience the money you have, it does not exist in her mind.”
So how do you reconcile these two pieces of advice? On the one hand, you need to display your wealth in order to date attractive women but that will pretty soon blow your cover, especially since women gossip about these things. On the other hand, you want to lay low for better life, but then you won’t likely be able to attract the women you would like to date.
I’d really like you to address this problem. Thanks!
As stated right here in this post you show money on an *as needed basis*
If you can’t figure out the difference and how it is not a contradiction… we got bigger problems!
Recently accepted an analyst role at a Large Single Family Office out of undergrad. Funny enough, people are already hitting me up… how should I be lying down about how much I’ll be making / how much capital the fund has to employ?
Work on developing a strong enough frame so you don’t feel compelled to answer these questions at all. Problem solved.
When people ask me “what I do for a living?”
I just tell them that I’m a McDonald bathroom cleaner.
They quickly end the conversation with a half fake smile and leave.
This also saves my time.
You mentioned about leaving or exiting the system on your twitter. How can you do that? Even if your work for yourself online you are part of capitalism. Can you explain? Thank you.
Hey WSP what tips do you have to prevent people with malicious intent finding you through your business. Like for domain registration you can pay extra for privacy but what about when it comes to looking up who runs a company, go panama?
All in the book. Step 1: don’t use your name.
Since this article covers keeping the cash flow on the down low pretty well, just for fun I’ll give some tips on how to operate if you do choose to live in a neighborhood that you own a large chunk of:
Freebies: If you patronize restaurants/bars/shops in buildings that you own, some owners or staff will try to comp your meals/drinks etc. When this situation arises, don’t argue, just smile, thank them and leave enough cash to pay for whatever it was you bought along with a generous tip. Taking freebies from someone who’s rent you may have to raise next month creates a weird dynamic. Plus this is just a classy move and makes you look good to staff, your date etc.
Whips: I’m not someone who needs the latest and greatest anything and generally live pretty simply, that said, I’ve been into cars since long before I passed my drivers exam and despite what this blog says I’m gonna own some nice whips. It’s pretty easy to hide nice cars from tenants, neighbors etc if you’re a real estate guy. Just get a garage away from where you live and store the nice cars there. Plus, if you’re a hands on RE investor, your daily driver ain’t going to be the ’68 Miura or the Yenko Camaro, it’s going to be a work vehicle that will be about as flashy as a pair of overalls.
Only be the owner when it makes sense: This is essentially my take on the “display wealth (and power) on an as needed basis.” If I’m telling some knuckleheads loitering in front of one of my places to get lost, you think I’m going to tell them I’m the owner? Hells no, I’m going to act as if I regret telling them to scram and am only doing so because the jerk who owns the place asked me to. This lowers their guard and makes you less of a target as you’re only a messenger. As other people mentioned, having your buildings owned by entities makes this possible on multiple levels.
And with people who do know you’re the owner and ask you for something? “Thanks for letting me know, but I don’t handle that, my manager/maintenance team does, here’s the number to call, be sure to tell them you talked to me.”
Are these perfect solutions and will they prevent every awkward situation? Of course not. But the fact is, if you want to live amongst your buildings it can be done without it ruining your life. Plus, you’ll feel like Don Corleone when you walk down the street on the first of the month and shopkeeps call you into their stores to hand you the rent check…
Having said that, if feeling like the godfather doesn’t do it for you and you prefer total anonymity, just follow what’s laid out in this article and move out the hood.
Great comment as usual, everyone has their own style, if you’re a car guy then no worries. This post is more of a “remain low key” post.
Thanks again!
Don’t get me wrong commuting via car is a soul-sucking waste of time and cars are a drain on the finances that should be avoided until you can *really* afford them.
Though I enjoy driving for fun (not sitting in traffic during commuting hours), having the ability to walk to work (or work from home) I feel is one of my greatest luxuries and I enjoy it as often as possible.
Some of your views are skewed due to the fact that you worked in NYC.
Example:
– You NEED a car if you don’t live in the city.
– Uber driver in NYC average 50k but outside of that average 25k doing 60 hour weeks.
– Your cover won’t be blown by owning a Lexus LS300
Right now getting 20% returns every week investing in crypto and putting a good 50% of my net worth into it.
Am I thinking about buying a Lambo? No. I’m thinking about buying an RV and living on $500/month.
No one’s rich at 22. Why flex when I can just build up a net worth in the millions and do whatever I want when I hit 30?
great topic for most readers, kinda skimmed tbh bc it doesn’t apply to me *yet*
any chance of a crypto post in the near future, whether it’s from WSPs or a guest?
seems to be a ton of misinformation out there from the “bro it’s gonna make you a millionaire in a year!” types, would love the straight scoop from people who actually know what they’re talking about and don’t BS.
love this site as always
Crypto will be covered in our personal finance book out january
Personal finance was 99% of our questions so we’ll knock it out with another product and cruise
“Open minded” – Translation: You should consider (and likely accept) my ideas based on more credibility than they deserve. You should not disagree with me (except, superficially) or expect me to consider your ideas with the credibility they deserve.
At it’s core, it’s a rhetorical trick where one person is telling the other person how to act, dressing it up with a pleasant sounding phrase.
On a deeper level, as children put in the custody of adults who aren’t their parents and have very little real interest in their well being (if the teachers have the capability to add to it at all, which is another question altogether), the children are taught through context to learn to be told how to act, how to feel, how to think.
Otherwise, why would there be millions of students today who know that the system is rigged against them, yet believe they have no option but to acquiesce and participate anyway. Most know they are being taken advantage of, however it is unarticulated. At most it’s a vague dissatisfaction; they really can’t tell what it is that’s wrong or how to remedy it.
Which was, of course, the whole point.